True Image Server & VMWare?

We're going to roll out VMWare GSX server to consolidate a bunch of aging physical systems. Ideally we'd like to clone a couple of the physical systems that have convoluted installations. VMWare sells a tool for doing this called P2V but it's really expensive and the smallest license is more systems than we need to clone.

Does anyone have any experience with TrueImage Server inside of VMWare guest environments?

The systems we want to clone are Windows 2000 Server running on HP LPr servers using HP's NetRaid 1si controllers in RAID-1 format.

 

No problems here. I've used TrueImage from within a guest VMWare OS without any issues.

Taking a TrueImage backup of a "real" system and then restoring that to a VMWare guest can cause some issues, but this is pretty much a Windows / OS problem. This is due to differences between hardware configurations. A repair install of the OS (or possibly sysprep) can fix this, however.

 

What situations do you use it in? I've never bothered with disk imaging software when using VMWare guests; either I take a snapshot and then just roll back to the snapshot if I need to, or just copy the .vmdk disk file and then generate a new SID if necessary.

I'm (all too) aware of the Windows-different-hardware issue when cloning systems, I can work around/with that.

 

Just for testing, actually. I listed both scenarios as I wasn't totally sure of how you'd be using it.

 

Hello mobocracy,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image Server (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATISWin/).

Acronis True Image Server is able to work in VMWare. You may create and restore images within its environment. Could you please descirbe your intensions in details so that we could give you more advice?

Thank you.
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Ilya Toytman

 

Specifically as a migration aid in moving a Win2k server with a pretty convoluted configuration to a VMWare guest image. It's trickier than some since the physical system is running on a dual-CPU box with a RAID-1 array, and the VMWare guest will only be single CPU and only have a SCSI disk (all virtual; the physical system is actually 2-CPU and running RAID-0+1).

 

Hello mobocracy,

We cannot guarantee that after you transfer the system to another configuration (that is completely different from the original one) the new configuration will be able to boot. All the data including system files will be transferred but the problem may occur because Windows will not recognze some devices properly.

Thank you.
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Ilya Toytman